Applied through a website called simplyhired. As has been the new norm with all applications- answered "Yes" for the question- "Will you now or in future require sponsorship?". Despite answering "Yes", I miraculously got an email from a recruiter to set up an initial conversation. Then I reviewed some interviews on glassdoor and found that Merkle Inc.'s recruiters ended conversations within a few minutes of the phone call as soon as they heard "Visa transfer". So I was confused if this recruiter missed my response in the questionnaire or I just got lucky and they indeed transfer visas. The recruiter promptly called at the scheduled time to discuss my experience and we had a great 30 min conversation. My experience was a good fit for the position in question, and we agreed on a few next steps. Just before concluding, came the godforsaken question. Everything went downhill from there. Here's the script I got - "Owing to federal regulations , Merkle Inc has discontinued visa transfers". I began to imagine like I was on Mars, because on planet earth visa transfers in United States are still legal and employees are continuing to work and pay taxes on their income. I refuted the claim and reassured that I am allowed to work with the new employer as soon as the receipt of transfer filings are confirmed. But to no avail . The recruiter maintained that Merkle Inc. has had a long culture of sponsoring candidates and also sponsoring greencards, but the company's HR directive for the past 3 weeks is that they will not be transferring visas because the candidate will not be able to work for over 6 months until the transfer is processed. When I challenged the validity of this piece of information, the recruiter promised to reconfirm and follow up, but I am not expecting much. Its one thing to overlook my "Yes" on the questionnaire, and a totally different issue that a company that has been sponsoring visas and greencards for a really long time has such flawed immigration knowledge. I wonder which legal Immigration firm is representing them, because they are doing a pathetic job.